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Carey rebounds at Scotties

Thursday, 6 February 2014 - 3:09pm

THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL—All things considered, Chelsea Carey would rather be in Sochi, Russia.
But qualifying for her first Scotties Tournament of Hearts after years of falling short in tough Manitoba provincial championships is as good as consolation prizes get for the 29-year-old from Winnipeg’s Fort Rouge Curling Club.

And Carey is making the most of it, taking her record to 7-1 after an 8-4 victory over New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford (5-4) last night.
Earlier in the day, the Carey rink trounced Quebec’s Allison Ross (1-8) by a 15-3 score.
The 15 points tied the Scotties record set in 1989, when Alberta beat Newfoundland 15-6.
Carey reached the Manitoba finals twice—losing in 2011 to Cathy Overton-Clapham and then in 2012 to Jennifer Jones, the four-time Scotties champion who will represent Canada at the 2014 Winter Games.
“We wanted to be here badly and lost a couple of heart-breakers and that’s no fun, but it wasn’t the only thing for us,” noted Carey.
“The [Olympic] trials was our first goal and this was our second goal.”
Her only loss so far was an 8-3 setback to start the week to defending champion Rachel Homan’s seemingly unstoppable Canada team.
Homan’s Ottawa foursome extended its unbeaten string to eight games with a 9-4 victory over Prince Edward Island’s Kim Dolan last night.
They have outscored their opponents 62-26 and have yet to play a full 10 ends.
Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton (7-1) posted an 8-6 win over Nova Scotia (3-6) while Ontario’s Allison Flaxey (3-5) completed a sweep of her squad’s two games yesterday with a 12-2 victory over the Yukon’s Sarah Koltun (1-8).
Flaxey had the upset of the day in the afternoon draw with a 6-5 win over Alberta’s Val Sweeting (6-3).
Carey put together her team specifically to take a shot at the Olympics.
The rink has been among Canada’s best for a few years, winning often in national and regional events, and did well enough to earn an invitation to the Canadian Olympic trials in Winnipeg.
When that dream died with a fourth-place finish, Carey said it was tough to find the energy to go to last month’s provincial championship, let alone win it.
“I took a week off and didn’t throw,” she recalled. “I forced myself to go back but I wanted no part of it.
“I was just going through the motions.
“It took a long time to get our heads back there, but we’d played in a lot of provincials before and we knew going into the trials that it was something we’d have to transition to,” Carey added. “It wasn’t easy but we did a good enough job to pull off the win there.”
Once she got her Manitoba team jacket and got to Montreal, Carey was thrilled to finally have a chance to represent her province at the Scotties.
Manitoba’s win over Quebec, meanwhile, had some wondering if curling needs a mercy rule. It was Quebec’s worst beating since a 13-1 setback to Alberta in 1991.
A rule obliges teams to play at least eight ends no matter how badly they’re trailing.